Ottoman antique iron armor: Helmet, Tabar axe, Dhal buckler shield Lot of Indo-Persian weaponry, including Tabar ...

Ottoman antique iron armor: Helmet, Tabar axe, Dhal buckler shield Lot of Indo-Persian weaponry, including Tabar Axe, Kulah Khud Helmet, and Dhal buckler shield with etched figures, scenes and Arabic writing. Attracted to the magnet. Shield diameter: 18 inches = 45 cm; Axe length: 29.0” = 74 cm; Helmet diameter: 8 inches = 20 cm; Helmet weight: 1 kg 110 g = 2 lb. 7 oz. Provenance: private collection, California, USA. The tabar (also called tabarzin, which means "saddle axe" [in persian], Modern Turkish: teber) is a type of battle axe. The term tabar is used for axes originating from the Ottoman Empire, Persia, India and surrounding countries and cultures. As a loanword taken through Iranian Scythian, the word tabar is also used in most Slavic languages as the word for axe[1] (e.g. Russian: топор). Persia The tabarzin (saddle axe) (Persian: تبرزین; sometimes translated "saddle-hatchet") is the traditional battle axe of Persia (Iran). It bears one or two crescent-shaped blades. The long form of the tabar was about seven feet long, while a shorter version was about three feet long. What makes the Persian axe unique is the very thin handle, which is very light and always metallic.[2] The tabarzin was sometimes carried as a symbolic weapon by wandering dervishes (Muslim ascetic worshippers).[citation needed] The word tabar for axe was directly borrowed into Armenian as tapar (Armenian: տապար) from Middle Persian tabar,[3][4] as well as into Proto-Slavonic as "topor" (*toporъ), the latter word known to be taken through Scythian,[5][1] and is still the common Slavic word for axe.[1] India During the 17th and 18th centuries, the tabar battle axe was a standard weapon of the mounted warriors of Punjab, Sikh Khalsa army and what is now modern day India and Pakistan. Made entirely of metal or with a wood haft, it had a strongly curved blade and a hammer-headed poll and was often decorated with scroll work. Sometimes a small knife was inserted in the tabar's hollow haft. Arabia According to Adam Metz's "Islamic Civilization in the Fourth Century of the Hegira," the tabar was frequently not only a weapon used by police chiefs (Sahib al-Shurta), but also a mark of office for them. The dhal is a type of shield found in the Indian subcontinent.[1] They are nearly always geometrically round and yet they vary in diameter from about eight inches to twenty-four inches. Some are nearly flat while others are strongly convex or curved.[2] The edges may be flat or rolled back in the reverse direction to that of the curvature of the shield. Dhal shields were either made from metal or hide.[3]